Bowling Green is enhancing its drinking water filtration system to better treat for contaminants caused by harmful algal blooms (HABs) in a project financed with an interest-free loan from Ohio EPA.

The project will replace and upgrade the water treatment plant’s rapid sand filters. This will help the plant remove contaminants from HABs by improving filter cleaning, shortening backwash cycles, improving filter performance and allowing for longer filter run times.

Created in 1998, the Water Supply Revolving Loan Account (WSRLA) provides below-market interest rate loans for compliance-related improvements for community water systems and nonprofit, non-community public water systems. The project is receiving $2.56 million from Ohio EPA. This will save the city an estimated $889,000 when compared to a market rate loan.

Projects eligible for WSRLA funding include design and construction loans for new, replaced, rehabilitated, upgraded or expanded water treatment plants and their components. In addition, the WSRLA can provide technical assistance to public drinking water systems in a variety of areas from the planning, design and construction of improvements to enhancing the technical, managerial and financial capacity of these systems.

Ohio EPA’s revolving loan funds are partially supported by federal grants and designed to last indefinitely through repayment of loans and investments in bonds. The WSRLA is managed by Ohio EPA’s Division of Environmental and Financial Assistance with assistance from the Ohio Water Development Authority. Ohio EPA is responsible for program development and implementation, individual project coordination, and environmental and other technical reviews or approvals of projects seeking funds. The Ohio Water Development Authority provides financial management of the fund.

More information about the WSRLA is available at: epa.ohio.gov/defa/EnvironmentalandFinancialAssistance.aspx.

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The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency was created in 1972 to consolidate efforts to protect and improve air quality, water quality and waste management in Ohio. Since then, air pollutants dropped by as much as 90 percent; large rivers meeting standards improved from 21 percent to 89 percent; and hundreds of polluting, open dumps were replaced with engineered landfills and an increased emphasis on waste reduction and recycling.